It really depends on the shape of the boat's hull and the combined weight of boat and crew. I used to ride behind a 14' aluminum john boat with a driver, a spotter in the boat. It was an old (by old I mean 1958) 25 hp sea king motor (2 stroke). We probably weighed about 135 -160 at pounds each at 15 years old so I'm going to say the total weight of the boat and two people was about 500 to 600 pounds and pulling a 160# rider. You had to have your deep water starts pretty spot on and be pretty patient to get up but we managed.
If you could do dock starts it would help as will a 4 stroke motor.
Last edited by gdavid; 05-21-2010 at 5:41 AM.